Project Far Reach

Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Tabot Ingalis was on his way to the Cetacean Research Lab. He had to admit he was a little worried. With the bloody mess down in the unfinished Under Ground Caverns exhibit, and the sudden disappearance of his best friend, he didn't know what was going on. And, there was also Kieko Shimitoa, another brilliant addition to the Project Far Reach team. Surely, Terry Mulligan would be smart enough to continue the research they were so far along on. Besides, there was undoubtedly a Nobel prize in it for who ever could deliver the results.

He stood at the entrance to the lab and pulled out his wallet. Finally, he fished it out and pulled out and swiped his security card on a small panel. A small LCD panel showed the letters that read: AUTHORIZATION GRANTED. He was puzzled slightly. It was as if there was a whole new security system in place. Thank goodness his card still worked, he thought.

Tabot opened the door and breezed by the guard's station, waving as he passed by her. She smiled and returned the wave. The elevator ride down was long. He wasn't sure what to expect. Edward was always here. Running things, but not now. He was gone and no one was sure where he was.

When people got bored they came to Edward. When they had a problem, they came to Edward. He was their leader in every sense of the word... and he wasn't here.

The doors slid open revealing an awful scene. Tom Styles and a few others stood with crossed arms watching construction workers disassemble their various console towers. It was all custom equipment and they were treating it like trash.

One of the workers lost his grip on the Far Reach console and it fell shatteringly into the ground.

"Hey! Watch what your doing with that!" Tom barked. "That's delicate equipment. It won't work if you keep dropping it like that!"

Tabot walked over to the group. The tension in the room was thick.

"What the hell is going on guys?" Tabot asked. His arms pointed outward towards everything that was happening in the room.

Robert Peckon stepped forward. "We sold our souls to higher industry that's what bloody happened!"

Tom nodded his head in agreement, "They wouldn't give us our severance fee unless we supervised the disassembling. They sold the equipment." He raised his hands up to his face and wiped the sweat off his forehead, then fixed his glasses.

Tabot was staring in disbelief. "You mean they fired you guys?" He couldn't believe this. They weren't even involved in the media scandal.

"Seems that the only way Eddy was able to hire us was through a sub-contract. When the project was terminated, so were we." Tom held up is hand in surrender.

Tabot looked around speechless. He walked over to one of the construction workers. He had long black hair in a pony tail and a built muscular physic. "Hey sir, could you tell me where all this equipment is going?"

The man stopped what he was doing and looked at Tabot. Then his expression turned to suspicious. "I'm sorry, but this equipment was bought by a private buyer. I can't give you their address."

He started to go back to work, but Tabot came in a little closer. "OK, but can you tell me what is going to happen to the three dolphins that live here?"

"The dolphins are already gone, they took them out first thing this morning." Tom butted in.

"They wouldn't even tell us where they were going." Robert added.

The construction worker looked like he wasn't comfortable with so many people obviously mad at him. He looked around to see if his superiors were around. Nobody. It was just like those bastards to piss off a bunch of scientists and leave him to clean up the mess. "I'm sorry, but why don't you go ask your god damn boss. Who do I look like, a 411 operator?" The worker turned his back on the scientists and went back to loading the equipment.